Carter: Obama should do what I did with Russia

posted at 2:01 pm on March 24, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

Could Barack Obama and the EU have prevented Russia from seizing Crimea? Not according to former President Jimmy Carter, who claimed to have faced down the Soviets with his own tough stand after their invasion of Afghanistan — including, according to Carter, a threat to launch nuclear weapons if they invaded anywhere else. Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea was a foregone conclusion after the revolution in Kyiv, Carter estimates, but said that Obama should follow his example to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine:

Former President Jimmy Carter said President Obama couldn’t have done anything to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from annexing Crimea.

“I think that was a foregone conclusion,” Carter said on MSNBC. “He was going to do it regardless of the consequences. I think now, that’s far enough.”

In comments Monday on “Morning Joe,” Carter compared Obama’s response to his own decisions at the White House in 1979, when he decided to boycott Moscow’s Summer Olympics after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

The United States and its European allies, Carter said, should take the same stand today as they did back then.

“I withdrew our ambassador, I put in place a grain embargo. I began to help the freedom fighters push out the Soviet troops and I warned Russia—the Soviet Union then—that if they went into a different country, we would respond militarily with all of the weapons we had at our disposal,” he said.

Over the weekend, Carter complained that Obama wasn’t seeking his input on foreign policy:

As it happens, I agree with Carter on the inevitability of Russia’s seizure of Crimea. The bases there were too valuable and the identity of the peninsula too Russia to ignore. Part of that inevitability, though, came from a perception of the West as being too weak to do much about it, with the lack of consequences over the 2008 seizure of South Ossetia and Abkhazia playing a large role in that context. The “reset button” Obama foreign policy started just a few months later, but the EU is just as responsible for the situation, if not more so. Unlike Carter, I don’t see a strong enough response from the West to dissuade Putin from seizing eastern Ukraine as well, nor do I think the West has made it very clear that Crimea is “far enough,” at least up to now.

Carter’s advice, meanwhile, is rather ironic. One reason that the Soviets felt enabled to invade Afghanistan was because of Carter’s own fecklessness about the nature of Soviet/Russian power. He chided Americans for their supposed paranoia of the Soviets and kissed Leonid Brezhnev’s cheek at the SALT II disarmament talks prior to the invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviets at that time controlled all of eastern Europe in an iron grip while Carter blithely dismissed their danger. If Obama isn’t calling Carter on the phone for advice on how to project strength, that’s one of the more hopeful signs we’ve seen from this administration.

Meanwhile, Russian ambassador Vitaliy Cherkin assures us that Vladimir Putin is not on a messianic mission to take over Ukraine:

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John McCain shrieking ‘bomb bomb, bomb bomb‘, John Kerry ‘ready for duty‘, Joe Biden running around somewhere in Europe with a shotgun, Hillary cackling on the sidelines, and now the Return Of The Peanut Farmer.And now choosing between Carter and Obama?

Carter’s advice, meanwhile, is rather ironic. One reason that the Soviets felt enabled to invade Afghanistan was because of Carter’s own fecklessness about the nature of Soviet/Russian power

OMG hotair just gave Carter credit for ending the cold war. So by default Carter is responsible for bringing down the USSSR. Afghanistan bankrupted them. So if Carter was not fickled they would not have invaded and we would still have the USSSR now. Talk about laws of unintented consequences. Thanks Hotair. I learned something new today. And thanks Carter for being fickle. The world owes you a debt of gratitude.

If we really want to invite Ukraine to become part of Western institutions, then Putin better keep on choppin’. If the Russians took the southern and eastern provinces, we would be left with a far more stable Ukraine and a society that is genuinely pro-West. The question is if our leaders manage to cut a deal with Putin or push him back seriously enough at the right moment, otherwise Russia might swallow the entire Ukraine.

Krauthammer was on the Dennis Miller show the other day pretty much agreeing. He pointed out that he use to be a supporter of Carter and that Carter was a failure … except for his strong stance against Russia in Afghanistan.

John McCain shrieking ‘bomb bomb, bomb bomb‘, John Kerry ‘ready for duty‘, Joe Biden running around somewhere in Europe with a shotgun, Hillary cackling on the sidelines, and now the Return Of The Peanut Farmer.
And now choosing between Carter and Obama?

sharrukin on March 24, 2014 at 2:15 PM

So, I never heard – when Slo Joe was in Poland, did he ever get to go shopping at the Fulda Gap?
:)

Well, if Obama should do what Carter did, I guess we could retroactively pull our athletes out of the Sochi Olympics. I’m trying to remember what else Carter did in response to the Afghanistan invasion, but I can’t think of anything.

So you were willing to start WWIII over some goatf**kers but when Iran committed a real act of war against the US, the best you could come up with was a couple of helicopters sent in during a sandstorm? You’re a genius, Jimmah.

So you were willing to start WWIII over some goatf**kers but when Iran committed a real act of war against the US, the best you could come up with was a couple of helicopters sent in during a sandstorm? You’re a genius, Jimmah.

His policies were so effective that the Russians pulled out of Afghanistan a decade after he left office after suffering over 14,000 “unrecoverable” KIA/MIA casualties. That Olympic boycott must have really hurt.

And he threatened to nuke something if they invaded anywhere else. Considering that he had cancelled practically every nuclear delivery system in the pipeline and was busy dismantling what we already had, I’m sure Brezhnev responded, “With what, exactly?”

On second thought, he probably threatened to nuke Reagan’s ranch.

As for The One not calling The Peanut up for advice, he doesn’t need to. He’s had Jimmy Earl living rent-free in his head since childhood.

You don’t need to “call somebody up” when they’re one of the little voices in your head to begin with.

With that i mean, it is right, that Fool- in- chief Carter could not prevent Brezhnev et consortes to take over Afghanistan, because of being too trusting of Old Leonid. It is also right that
Fool- in – chief Obama could not prevent Old Vlad take over Crimea,
because of Barry´s misguided belief that the Big V would play ball
according to Western game rules.

Fool- in – chief Obama could not prevent Old Vlad take over Crimea,
because of Barry´s misguided belief that the Big V would play ball
according to Western game rules.

The Past is Prologue.

Swedish Patriot on March 24, 2014 at 2:48 PM

Saw a season 2 episode of Game of Thrones last night – where 2 knights battled in the dwarf’s “trial by combat”. The knight who fought for the dwarf won, and was told “you did not fight honorably” – to which he responded – “no, but he did” (nodding toward the hole where the body of the other guy had just fallen).

King Putt doesn’t exactly fight honorably either, but he’s not even close to Putin’s level in that regard.

Over the weekend, Carter complained that Obama wasn’t seeking his input on foreign policy

The biggest takeaway from the article pour moi. If this were referring to any CIC other than O’Butthead, everyone would be laughing his head off, but since it is O’Butthead, who has shown himself to be worse than Jimmah in every way imaginable, the quote has a fleeting bit of wistful relevance.

How do you feel about virtually creating Osama bin-Laden with your “Smaht Powah”?

Do America and the world a favor and die, like yesterday.

I’d like to think this clown is going senile, but I lived through his interminable term, and he was always this stupid and crazy. As much as I think O should be ranked as worst, due to his obvious disdain for America, I still vomit in my mouth anytime I see JC.

Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus’ Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption

by Ion Mihai Pacepa

A former chief of Romania’s foreign intelligence service reveals the extraordinary corruption of the Nicolae Ceausescu government of Romania, its brutal machinery of oppression, and its Machiavellian relationship with the West. An in side story of how Communist Party leaders really live.

If you want an enlightening view of how Romanian Intelligence Officers in addition to other Soviet Intelligence Agencies successfully manipulated and continually laughed at former President Carter, pick up a copy of this excellent book.

I hope President Carter reads this book too. He might learn something about working with Communists.

I can only imagine how hard Communists around the world are laughing at President Obama now.

Well, if Obama should do what Carter did, I guess we could retroactively pull our athletes out of the Sochi Olympics. I’m trying to remember what else Carter did in response to the Afghanistan invasion, but I can’t think of anything.